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by The Corvid Blog

A juvenile western jackdaw (Corvus monedula spermologus) is served water by some nice humans in Supetar, Croatia.

While jackdaws are still listed as in the genus Corvus (with other crows) in most literature, many workers argue that the two species of jackdaw (western, C. monedula, and daurian, C. dauuricus) should be in their own genus Coloeus. Indeed, they have long been listed in the ‘sub-genus’ Coloeus and a 2007 paper looking at the genetic diversity, using mitochondrial DNA of certain species of corvids, supports the assertion that jackdaws should be in their own genus. In fact, the International Ornithological Union and Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide by Rasmussen and Anderton both list them as genus Coloeus.

Semantics aside, these small corvids have long been recognized as being morphologically distinct from the rest of the genus Corvus. They are small (the smallest of genus Corvus) and very sociable; as evidenced by this video. They are a common urban bird and thrive just as well in human dominated landscapes as they do in remote landscapes, like a number of other corvids. However, jackdaws also differ from other crows in that they nest in crevices/holes, much to the distress of many a chimney-owner.

And while I’m on the topic of crows that are proposed as distinct from the others, another sub-genus, Corvultur, has been previously proposed for the fan-tailed raven (C. rhipidurus), white-necked raven (C. albicollis), and thick-billed raven (C. crassirostris) due to their close geographical relationship and unusually thick bills. However, this division is not very robust, and a 2012 study placed white-necked and thick-billed ravens as closely related, but fan-taileds sorted out closer to pied crows (C. albus) and then common ravens (C. corax) and brown-necked ravens (C. ruficollis). However, unlike the Corvultur, both jackdaw species still remained very distinct from the rest of genus Corvus, forming the most basal group.

All of that said…I hope you enjoy this video of a jackdaw getting a nice cool drink of water after coercing some primates into opening a bottle and pouring a cap-full for it.